Agriculture: Member States agree in
principle to abolish obligatory set-aside

At a meeting of the Special Committee for
Agriculture on Monday, the outgoing Presidency of the EU Council concluded that
the vast majority of Member States will agree to abolish set-aside as proposed
by the Commission in its CAP Health Check proposals. The change comes in
response to the increasingly tight situation on the cereals market. Under these
circumstances, farmers can already benefit from the measure as from their autumn
2008 and spring 2009 sowings. The end of the set-aside scheme will allow farmers
to adjust their planting decisions and respond in advance to new market
circumstances.

The abolition of compulsory set-aside from 2009 onwards is a part of the
Commission's CAP Health Check proposal, which was adopted by the Commission on
20 May 2008 and it is currently under discussion in the Council, the European
Parliament and the other European Institutions. Under the proposal, farmers will
not be obliged to set aside land from production in order to be entitled to the
amount fixed by the set-aside entitlements. The set-aside entitlements will be
turned into to normal payment entitlements. The proposal is the logical
follow-up of the Council decision to fix the rate for compulsory set aside at
zero in 2008.

Background

Set-aside was introduced to limit production of cereals in the EU and applied
on a voluntary basis from 1988/89. After the 1992 reform, it became obligatory
i.e. producers under the general scheme were required to set-aside a defined
percentage of their declared areas in order to be eligible to direct payments.
With the 2003 reform, they received set-aside entitlements, which give the right
to a payment if they are accompanied by eligible land put into set-aside.

The rate of obligatory set-aside was initially decided every year but in
1999/2000 it was set permanently at 10 % for simplification purposes. In
the new Member States that opted for the Single Area Payment Scheme (SAPS),
farmers are exempted from the obligation of set-aside (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech
Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovak
Republic,).

For autumn 2007 and spring 2008 sowings the rate of set-aside has already
been set at 0%.